Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) is preparing a dredging project in Sussex County.
Massey’s Ditch near Long Neck will be deepened and widened starting next month.
It’s a vital channel for First State boaters and DNREC’s Shoreline and Waterway Management Section project administrator Michael Powell says dredging serves multiple purposes.
“It is dredging a very heavily used channel that connects Rehoboth Bay and Indian River Bay," said Powell. "But what makes it an even more important project is the sandy material that is coming out of that dredging project at Massey’s Ditch will be placed on the eroding beach on the north side of the Indian River Inlet.”
Powell says Wisconsin-based J.F. Brennan Company, Inc. has been hired to do the dredging at a cost of $3.6 million. The project is 100% State funded.
He expects that about 100,000 cubic yards of material, almost completely comprised of sand, will be dredged.
Powell outlines what people can expect ahead of the dredging over the next few weeks.
“What they will be seeing during the next couple weeks is pipe being welded together as the dredge contractor prepares for the pipeline to be used to dredge and move the material the mile or so from Massey’s Ditch over to the north Indian River Inlet beach,” said Powell.
The dredging is set to begin on January 6, 2020 and should be completed in 31 days, weather permitting.
When the project is complete, Massey’s Ditch will be dredged to a width of 100-feet and a depth of 7.5-feet.
